a Boosted campaign<\/a> in the hopes of raising $15,000 \u2013 just enough to cover rent, food and petrol for a 21-day shoot. Without even revealing what the top secret horror film was about, they ended up with over $19,000 donated.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cIt was just enough money to hit go,\u201d says Devlin. \u201cSo we did.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018How has this movie not been made?\u2019<\/p>\n
Crucially, they also had a great premise. The team had permission to live and shoot at Kean\u2019s parents\u2019 property in North Canterbury \u2013 \u201ca very privileged position\u201d Kean is quick to acknowledge \u2013 and mulled over how the location could lend itself to horror. \u201cWe started imagining a group of friends who go out to the wops and find a strain of weed that turns you into a cannibal,\u201d says Devlin. \u201cThe idea of very extreme munchies felt so obvious that it was almost hack, and I was like \u2018we have to do this immediately, how has this movie not been made?\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\")
Finnius Teppet, Samuel Austin, Alice May Connolly and Annabel Kean (Image: Supplied)<\/p>\n
Over a few weeks in late 2023, they sat in a barn in North Canterbury (the very same room used as the central location in the movie) and worked out the story. At night, they would watch a range of New Zealand and Australian films, including The Castle, Next of Kin, Mr Wrong, and Scarfies. \u201cWe had to watch Scarfies to make sure that we didn\u2019t accidentally copy the film,\u201d laughs Kean. \u201cThat film is so, so frightening,\u201d adds Devlin. \u201cI couldn\u2019t handle the second half of it. It\u2019s about uni students torturing a man in the basement. It\u2019s really, really dark.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The story was then handed to Teppett, who got to work on the first script. \u201cThat was done just before Christmas, and Calum was like, \u2018great, we\u2019ll start shooting in a couple of weeks!\u2019\u201d he recalls. \u201c\u2018I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, it\u2019s just the first draft!\u2019\u201d Nonetheless, the shoot started January 8, 2024, with only half a finished shooting script. \u201cWe were working on the second half while we were shooting the first half, which was quite fun,\u201d says Teppett. \u201cIt was very much just finding our way as we went,\u201d adds Devlin. \u201cWe were running in the dark, basically.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018We\u2019d get the onions out to make our eyes red\u2019<\/p>\n
The shoot often had just six people on set, with everyone slipping into different roles over the course of a day. When Kean wasn\u2019t on camera as Charlie, she\u2019d be racing back to home base to find a camera lens, cooking up a roast pork, or mixing buckets of fake blood. Connolly, who also plays Jules, says that health and safety \u201cwasn\u2019t really a thing\u201d and hair and makeup was kept simple. \u201cWe put lip liner on our eyes and we\u2019d get the onions out to make our eyes red and irritated,\u201d she says. \u201cExcept it didn\u2019t always work for me, because I was wearing contacts.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for acting various degrees of stoned, there was plenty of lived experience to draw from. \u201cAs an actor, you just have to do your research,\u201d says Connolly. \u201cBasically, we just got stoned and we talked about what it was like.\u201d They also established a metric to differentiate the effects of the different weed that appears in the movie. \u201cWe had a series of physical things that would happen to our bodies when we smoke the cannibal weed, like a cold metal rod goes up your spine, and then it trickles into your head, and then it is like a demon awakens inside of you.\u201d<\/p>\n
A busier day on The Weed Eaters set (Image: Supplied)<\/p>\n
Chilling stuff, but still not as scary as what Devlin says was his most terrifying day on set. The film features a complicated chase sequence in the forest which sees one character end up in a tree, and nobody had any idea how to shoot it. \u201cI woke up with dread in the bottom of my stomach,\u201d says Devlin. \u201cBut we just worked out the first shot, and then figured it out one at a time. It was the closest it ever got to making movies as a 12-year-old in the backyard.\u201d For Teppett, whose character is the lucky one up the tree, it also had shades of childhood nostalgia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone was like, \u2018are you sure? You don\u2019t have to do this\u2019,\u201d he laughs. \u201cBut I was just like \u2018are you kidding me? I haven\u2019t climbed a tree in ages\u2019.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018I would get stoned and watch what I\u2019d cut\u2019<\/p>\n
After a snappy 21-day shoot, the post-production period yawned well over a year. Everyone headed back to Auckland to get jobs again, which included Devlin and Kean working in the Taskmaster NZ art department by day, and trying to cram in editing at night. \u201cIt was hard when you were scrubbing duck shit off the Taskmaster docks, knowing you have this immovable festival deadline,\u201d says Devlin. \u201cWhenever I got time I would go and hide in my dark cave, finish a scene, export it, and then I would get stoned and watch what I\u2019d cut to road test it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first cut of the movie was over twice as long as the final duration. \u201cThat was my fault,\u201d says Devlin. \u201cI did think it was a Western when we were shooting it, so everything was very drawn out with big pauses.\u201d Over the edit process, several buzzy sequences ended up on the cutting room floor, including a puppeteered possum and the appearance of a \u201cbig breasted animated worm\u201d voiced by comedian Guy Montgomery. \u201cThat cut actually came quite late in the process,\u201d laughs Devlin. \u201cA lot of very prestigious film festivals have seen the version with the double D worm.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Director Callum Devlin on set (Image: Finnius Teppett)<\/p>\n
Through a chance meeting in a shared Uber home from the Big Screen Symposium, The Weed Eaters team connected with producer Gemma Gracewood, who in turn introduced them to the Australian production company Causeway Films (Talk to Me, Bring Her Back). \u201cThey then gave us money to finish the post production properly \u2013 the ADR and the colour grade and all of the various requirements for a film we never knew existed,\u201d says Kean. \u201cIt felt too good to be true at the time,\u201d adds Devlin. \u201cBut it also, weirdly, felt like it was part of the plan all along.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Start before you\u2019re ready\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Weed Eaters had its world premiere at Auckland\u2019s Civic Theatre during Wh\u0101nau M\u0101rama last year. \u201cIt was nuts,\u201d says Teppett. \u201cWe blew the top off the Civic. One of the things about that screening was that it had been a year and a half since we\u2019d shot it, and by then the jokes weren\u2019t funny to us and we\u2019d forgotten that we were even making a comedy.\u201d Devlin recorded the crowd response as a voice memo on his phone. \u201cIt was just so exciting to hear these constant crashing waves of laughter over the whole film. We weren\u2019t sure people would laugh at all.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
From there, The Weed Eaters travelled to various international film festivals including FrightFest in the UK, and most recently traversed the country on a special \u201cBig Forking Tour of New Zealand\u201d. It was another trick stolen from the world of live music. \u201cThe best part about being in a band is that you get to go on tour and meet the weird people that like the weird thing that you make,\u201d says Devlin. \u201cIt\u2019s always very exciting to meet your fellow freaks.\u201d<\/p>\n
With The Weed Eaters now out nationwide, the makers hope that people see it in theatres for the \u201cwhole fizzing comedy cinema experience\u201d. Beyond that, they also hope the film\u2019s origin story encourages others to take a big swing. \u201cI think it has arrived at just the right time where a lot of people are feeling like, \u2018how do I cut through?\u2019,\u201d says Connolly. \u201cThis is a reminder that you can do it yourself.\u201d Teppett\u2019s advice is to start before you\u2019re ready. \u201cPut a date in the diary and hit it \u2013 making anything is more important than making an amazing perfect thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
And just like a bunch of 30-somethings indulging in cannibal weed, the team are very much going back for another big bite very soon. \u201cWe have a rule that if something\u2019s really hard, we\u2019ve got to do it at least twice,\u201d says Devlin. \u201cBecause what\u2019s the point of going through all that if you\u2019re not going to be able to have another go when it\u2019s slightly easier?\u201d They are now in development on a new top secret \u201cpretty weird and pretty genre-y\u201d film, this time with Teppett directing and writing, and are hoping to start shooting later this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAgain, wildly ambitious,\u201d says Teppett. \u201cBut why not?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Weed Eaters is in cinemas nationwide now.<\/p>\n